What's Blooming Here - Early May

This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of what's blooming here.  To keep up with a really complete record of what's in bloom might not be too difficult at the beginning of the season, but I don't think I could keep up with it after awhile!  And this blog is for our enjoyment, not serious record-keeping.  

I love to stomp around in the woods to see what wildflowers I can find.  (though I'm very careful not to stomp ON them!)  But you can even see quite a few right from your car.  Be careful if you are driving, please!

I'll start with one that you are perhaps most likely to see and has been in bloom the longest.  That would be Coltsfoot.  They have been blooming along the roadsides in damp ditches for a few weeks now (since about the middle of April here this year).

Some of them are already showing their fluffy seed heads, another similarity they have with Dandelions.  (Though, sorry, I don't have a photo of that!)

Another flower you can see right from your car -- usually in lawns, are Quaker Ladies, also called Bluets.  We used to have some large patches of them in the old cow pasture, but search though I did, this year I only found this tiny bunch:

They are quite diminutive - only about 2" high, so in small quantities they are easily overlooked unless you love them like I do and keep a careful eye out.  

Finding only a tiny patch on our farm made me a bit jealous of our neighbor's lovely patch:

Though, mainly I am just glad they are there!
You can enjoy them from afar, but they are also exquisite up close:

The next blooms you might also see from your car.  I know where there are some growing in a roadside ditch near our house.  However, the ones in the next two photos were taken up on our hill.

They are Marsh Marigolds and they do love to grow right in the water.

Violets are also beginning to bloom.  

This one's a Sweet Yellow Violet, but many other kinds are or will soon be blooming.

The Dog-toothed Violets (which aren't really violets at all but are in the Lily family) are blooming brightly on sunny days now.   Amazingly enough, this batch was blooming right along our road a few years ago:

April 25, 2008

The next photo is how you are more likely to see them unless it's a warm, sunny day-- and there are almost always many more of their mottled leaves than there are flowers.

 

The Red Trillium are starting to bloom now.

As you can see there are more buds still to open.  

Next is a patch of Squirrel Corn in our woods.  It's dainty, silvery foliage is very pretty in person, though a little hard to see in the photo.  I wanted to show you how many leaves are there and only one flower stem (at least so far).

Squirrel Corn foliage stretches from in front of the rock on the left side of the photo to the right end of the log in the middle foreground.

Here's what it looks like up close:

And even closer...

I can't show you why it has the name Squirrel Corn, because I did not want to dig up any of the roots (which are corms said to resemble small ears of corn, hence the name).  It apparently is on the endangered species list in New Jersey, and I don't know if that is true in Pennsylvania, but in any case it doesn't seem right to dig it up!

Also blooming now in my woods are Twinleaf.  I have not ever found this plant in the wild, though it is a native of Pennsylvania.  My plants came from Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve and have been happy where they were planted and seeded themselves into a nice bunch.  You can read more about both Twinleaf and Bowman's Hill in a post I wrote last spring by clicking here.

Twinleaf

So, there you have some of the wild things that are blooming in my neck of the woods.  What's blooming where you live?

Violets' Secrets

Violets are probably one of the best known of our native wildflowers.  Even though they are so well known, they still have their secrets!  I'm going to reveal some of these to you now....  

Violets are sweet little flowers, aren’t they?  Well, actually most of them aren’t --sweetly-fragranced, that is.  They may be “sweet” as in being “pleasing or delightful”, but only a few kinds of them have sweet-smelling flowers!  (Secret number one!) 

One Violet that actually does have fragrant flowers are these aptly named Sweet White Violets.

My 'Peterson’s Guide to Wildflowers' says there are 52 species in the Viola family in Northeastern and North Central America.  A booklet I have from Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve says, “Of the 100 species of Violets found in the US, 38 are native to Pennsylvania”.  That’s a lot of kinds of Violets!  Plus... they can hybridize or crossbreed between two different species or varieties.  (Secret number two!)

This "Confederate Violet" is a color-form/hybrid of Viola sororia. The common name comes from the color of the Confederate Army uniforms during the Civil War.  Quite a few years ago, one of my older brothers brought home from kindergarten a Mother's Day gift of a Confederate Violet plant in a paper cup.  From this one plant, they spread quickly in my Mother's garden.  I remember picking bouquets of them for her when I was a little girl.  Descendants of her plant from the paper cup now populate my garden and lawn!

They have spread to form a lovely patch under my kitchen deck where they seem to enjoy the moist shade.

They are spreading into the fern and hosta bed nearby.

Ruby says that the flowers and leaves of Violets are edible, but she prefers dog biscuits, if anyone is interested.

Another interesting Violet hybrid grows in the midst of my big patch of Confederate Violets.  It's called "Freckles".  You can see why in this photo:

From one plant that my sister-in-law gave me a few years ago, there are now several.   

Here's another pretty violet.... a Round-leafed Yellow Violet.  Botanists weren't too creative with Violet names, were they?

 In the next photo, you can see how much the Round-leafed Yellow Violet's leaves look like African Violet leaves.  But, did you know that African Violets are not really Violets?  They aren't in the Viola family, they are Saintpaulias.

Here are some Common Blue Violets... though frankly, shouldn't they have a nicer name than that?!

Every year at Violet-blooming time, I enjoy picking a bouquet for myself.  Even though I have lots of Violets outside right under my kitchen deck, I like to have some on my windowsill, too.

I guess I'm still a little girl at heart because I love stepping out into the garden and taking time to pick a bunch of their tiny stems, then throwing them together in a vase.  You don't arrange Violets... you just put them in a vase and they look beautiful.

Now, finally, here is the the biggest secret of the Violet family -- besides these lovely flowers, they produce hidden flowers!  Yep, the sweet-looking little violets have flowers that you may not ever have seen.  They are called cleistogamous flowers and they are produced under the ground or close to the surface under their foliage!  (Secret number three!)  Here’s an interesting link that has some great photos of these unique flowers.  The cleistogamous flowers don't open, aren't colorful, and fertilize themselves.  The seeds are already in the ground, ready to grow!  Pretty amazing, huh?
That's the end of "Violets' Secrets"... now they aren't secret anymore.